Walking in the Air
by Raven Sheridan
Summary: Oneshot/Songfic KATAANG. Inspired by the song "Walking in the Air". One night when Katara can't sleep, Aang takes her on a flight that neither of them will ever forget. Enjoy the Kataangy goodness!


**A Kataang Oneshot-Songfic**

**Inspired by a song by the name of "Walking in the Air", sang by Chloe Agnew of Celtic Woman. The second I heard this song, I thought of Aang taking Katara on a midnight flight on his glider. :D Rated T for minor romance. I don't really have a clearly defined "time" for when this is set, but it's after Toph joins the gang and before the Day of Black Sun for sure. Look the song up on Youtube to play along while you read. It's worth it, trust me. **

**And OMG, it's not a lemon! Is there such a thing as a non-lemon worth reading? Maybe not this one, but there are some good ones out there! Let me know if this is one of them! [lovelovelovelovelove ya guys!]**

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**Walking in the Air**

Katara lay in her sleeping bag, staring at the stars twinkling in the clearest nighttime sky she'd ever seen. Well, maybe it wasn't the clearest she'd seen, but when hope lives in your heart once again, everything seems just a little bit brighter. She sighed softly and folded her hands behind her head.

Since Aang had come into her life, everything had changed. Daily life in the Southern Water Tribe had been busy, always busy, but it had been stagnant. It was the same thing every day with no end in sight. But then, they were lucky to get by that way, ignored by the Fire Nation now that they believed they had all of their benders. Katara supposed she should be grateful for those few years of peace.

She'd always assumed that when one of the younger boys of the tribe got older, she'd get married, despite their age difference. But now… now she had options. She glanced over to where Aang slept. Yes, her options had certainly expanded before her very eyes. Granted, he was two years younger, and she was only fourteen, but they had their whole lives ahead of them. With the Avatar and their allies on the offensive, this war wouldn't last forever.

Katara jumped when Aang stirred in his spot on Appa's leg and a blush crept up her neck and cheeks. It wasn't like he could hear her thoughts, but she was still embarrassed by them. She turned away quickly and resumed looking at the stars. She breathed deeply to calm her racing heart and threw the covers off. Her body temperature had risen in response to her sudden flush.

Aang opened one eye and glanced over to Katara. Normally he could sleep through a hurricane, but her quiet movements had woken him up for some reason. Katara wasn't having a nightmare, she was just staring at the sky. He propped himself on one elbow and turned towards her.

"Katara," he whispered, hopeful not to wake Sokka or Toph.

She jumped again, her heart trying to climb out her throat. "Aang, I though you were asleep!" she whispered back.

He shrugged nonchalantly and floated down from his perch on Appa's leg on an air current. "Can't sleep?"

Katara sat up and shook out her hair, running her fingers through it to loosen any tangles. "No. I can't get my mind to stop spinning for some reason."

"Wanna take a flight around the cove? Flying always calms me down." He twirled his staff for effect, walking towards her.

"Oh, I'm not sure, Aang. Appa's sleeping. We shouldn't bother him," she said, covering herself with her blankets. It was summer and she'd taken to sleeping in only her bindings. Not that he hadn't seen her in only that when they were sparring, but still. It seemed… inappropriate in the dark.

He noticed her embarrassment and blushed slightly himself. He looked down at the ground instead. "Well, I was thinking I could take you on my glider instead. You're light. I could support both of us easily."

"Oh…uh… you know how I am with heights…"

He grinned. "Yep. Come on, it'll be great." He grabbed her hand and pulled her up suddenly. Shocked, she let the blankets drop and promptly lost her balance, stumbling into Aang's arms. She blinked rapidly and found herself eye to eye with Aang. Without missing a beat, he wrapped one arm around her waist and snapped the glider open with the other.

The next few moments were a blur to Katara, but they involved a short run, a leap into the air, and a sudden gust of wind that carried them up into the sky. She didn't even have a second to pose one last protest to this venture before they were soaring high above the calm ocean, her arms clinging desperately to Aang's body. She kept her eyes tightly closed. This was NOT how she wanted to be flying!

Aang laughed joyously, looking down at the top of Katara's head. He reveled in the feel of her silken hair whipping about his naked torso and her arms wound tightly around him. When they were far enough over the ocean he urged her to open her eyes.

"Katara, look. Look at the water."

With a nervous sound in her throat, she opened one eye, then the other and stared in amazement at the water below. "It's like the stars and the moon are below us," she breathed.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" He thought the reflection was pretty, but it wasn't the reflection he was talking about. Katara was more beautiful than a thousand moons, than a million burning stars.

"Oh Spirits, it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

He dipped the glider suddenly towards the water, eliciting a surprised squeal from his passenger. She tightened her hold on him, and he thought to himself that he'd have to pull more maneuvers like that. Selfish, sure, but he loved the idea.

Right before they plummeted into the ocean, Aang straightened them out and they shot over the surface of the water like a giant waterbird. He dipped one wing of the glider into the water and Katara giggled. She reached out and tentatively trailed her fingertips in the water, lovingly tracing meaningless patterns into her native element.

Aang smiled in delight as she manipulated the water beneath them, almost making it look as if they were racing a herd of dancing koi fish. The water leapt and sped along with their progress, jumping up to meet them and gently splash their skin. The full moon was bringing out an unusual childlike playfulness in Katara and showing it's self in her bending purely for the joy of it, and Aang was really loving this side of her. He silently promised to give her more opportunities to show it.

He angled them up and away suddenly, leaving the dancing water-koi behind. Shifting his weight to one side, he effortlessly flipped them upside down, so that they were staring directly up at the midnight sky. Katara gasped and wriggled against him, making Aang smile to himself. She shifted herself so that she was almost laying directly on top of him, instead of dangling precariously over the water. He could feel her heart racing, and his own sped to match.

"I have you, Katara. Don't worry."

"I know. I trust you, Aang."

They drifted like this for a few moments, silently admiring the moon and stars in all their glory, floating like a leaf on a gentle breeze. They held each other close, allowing all of the feelings they shared to be free between them, never saying a word but understanding perfectly what they meant. Katara sighed dreamily, absently exploring his chest with delicate fingers.

"What do you think of all of this?" he asked, maintaining the air flow to keep them airborne.

"It's…amazing. You're amazing," she said, blushing. "I can't believe I was ever afraid of this."

"I knew you'd love it if you gave it a chance." Before he could stop himself, he pressed a gentle kiss into her hair, and her blush deepened.

"Aang…." She looked up at him, her thoughts plainly visible in her cobalt eyes.

He cleared his throat, embarrassed at his own boldness. "Ready to land?"

"Not really, but we should be getting back." Disappointment colored her tone.

He righted the glider and lazily drifted back down to the earth. They landed in a pretty little cove, one surrounded by lush greenery and a colorful array of tropical flowers of all shapes and sizes, only a short way off from camp. He set Katara down, as reluctant to let her go as she was to let go of him. He snapped his glider shut and set it down in the sand, gracelessly pulling Katara down with him. He flopped back on the sand, arms and legs splayed as if he were about to start making sand-angels. She followed suit, and after a moment's hesitation, she snuggled up to him, using his chest as a pillow. The night was warm, and their combined body heat soon made laying close to one another uncomfortable. Katara started to pull away, but Aang held her tight.

"Wait."

He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, and without moving a muscle he beckoned the cool ocean tide to rise to them. It flowed toward them, and back again in the eternal push and pull of the spirits, gently caressing the earth as it slowly came to them. Soon he had the gentle waves lapping at their bodies, blanketing them with cooling water.

"Good idea," she whispered, drowsily. She curled up against him, the length of her body hugging his.

"Sleep, Katara. I've got you." He played with her silky hair floating in the tide as she drifted off to sleep. He stayed awake for a long time, enjoying the feel of her beside him, not sure when he'd ever be able to experience this again. He prayed to the spirits that that day would be soon, and the moon and ocean spirits danced their eternal dance around them the rest of the night.

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"Good morning, sunshine," Toph called to Sokka as the Water Tribe warrior stretched lazily in his sleeping bag. "Good of you to join me this afternoon."

"Afternoon?" Sokka shot upright, flinging covers away. "Just how long have I been asleep, and why hasn't anyone tried to wake me up?"

Toph hopped down from her perch on a sandstone boulder near the vegetation surrounding their campsite and made her way over to him. "Yeah, right. Have you ever tried to wake yourself up? I have, and it's not pretty, let me tell you."

"Well, what about Aang or Katara? Katara never minds waking me up from my beauty sleep." Sokka looked around for signs of his sister or the airbender. "Where are they, anyway? Off sparring?"

"Don't know," the blind earth bender replied, mouth full of moon peach. "Haven't seen either on of them at all this morning. This sand kills my earth bending… oh, wait! I can kinda see them! They're…sleeping? Over in the next cove." She pointed in the right direction.

"WHAAAT? Why are they sleeping over there? _Together?_"

Sokka took off in their direction, tearing through the brush, not caring who could hear him. He mumbled death threats under his breath, and something about the airbender having another hole to blow air from. All in all, Toph was quite impressed with his cursing ability.

They finally pushed through and the sight of Katara in her underthings draped across Aang had Sokka reaching for his club, but Toph bent a little bit of earth around his ankles to keep him in place.

"Let me go!" he hissed, and tried to chip away the rock with his weapon.

"Oh hush, Snoozles. They didn't do anything wrong. Trust me, I could have felt _those_ kind of vibrations."` She leaned against a tree, still munching on the peach.

"I don't care! He's touching my sister!"

"Keep it down, Snoozles. I'll let you go if you promise to behave." She finished her peach and thunked the pit off the back of Sokka's head with uncanny accuracy.

"Ow! Fine, I'll leave them alone. But he and I are going to have a little man to man talk later," he growled, rubbing the back of his head.

Toph let the earth shackles fall away and felt Sokka stalk off back towards camp. She started to follow, but turned to get one last "look" at the couple laying peacefully on the beach.

"Way to go, Twinkletoes," she said under her breath, and followed the pouting warrior back to camp to enforce his promise to behave.

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**Hooray for non-lemony romantic fics! :D I didn't feel right writing this into a lemon with my 5 year old sitting next to me on the couch. LOL! Oh well, there will be plenty of opportunity later to have Aang and Katara tear each other's clothes off. This isn't quite as finely executed as I'd have liked, but it'll do for now. Once I'm on a roll, it's best I finish it, or my train of thought will derail over something as tiny as a **_**gnat**_**. XD I'm so blonde. Anyhooooo….**

**[h e a r t],**

**Nyx**


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